Invasive ‘ornamental’ should be banished

The crested floating heart is an example of an invasive plant that becomes a major problem before regulators ever consider control measures and then regulation against its spread is even slower. All the evidence shows that the sale of the plant should be outlawed, but nothing has happened even though it has smoothered thousands of acres of water. It is marketed as an ornamental lily.

Crested floating heart has highly invasive traits that are making it a major weed in Southeastern bodies of water. Despite intense control efforts, escaped plants have thrived in cypress swamps, lakes and water management canals across Florida since the late 1990s. By 2006 crested floating heart had made its way to South Carolina’s Lake Marion, a large body of water sometimes characterized as an inland sea. In just two years, a 20-acre infestation ballooned to more than 2,000 acres. The latest estimates suggest it now covers 6,000 acres of the lake’s surface.

“Despite the danger it represents, crested floating heart is still readily available online and through local garden stores,” said Ken Langeland, Ph.D., University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. “Until regulators address the problem by eliminating the source of supply, buyers are encouraged to beware.”

Crested floating heart was introduced to the U.S. from Asia. It grows quickly and forms dense canopies that float along the surface of a body of water. Unfortunately crested floating heart is also easily spread. Small plant fragments can be transported by wind, flowing water, boats and trailers. In addition, clusters of miniature plants called “ramets” can easily break away from established colonies of the plant to spread and take root elsewhere.

To date, scientists have found little in their aquatic weed toolbox to be effective in the battle against crested floating heart. Despite the large mass of leaves floating on the water surface, foliar herbicides, including those that work effectively on other floating-leaf aquatic weeds, have had little success. Weed-eating sterile grass carp don’t like crested floating heart, and attempts at mechanical harvesting have actually spread the plant by breaking off small fragments. It has survived a lowering of water levels and even freezing temperatures.

In the absence of effective control measures, many communities have resorted to training volunteers to detect and report new infestations in the hope that the weed can be isolated and contained. They also caution water enthusiasts to clean boats and trailers carefully after navigating waters and shorelines that might be infested.

“It is clear that additional research is necessary to develop effective controls,” Langeland said. “In the meantime, it is important that each of us do our part to minimize the spread of crested floating heart.”

Crested floating heart should not be purchased for any use—landscape ponds or otherwise. Those persons with it already on their property should use all means possible to remove it immediately and dispose of it far away from any body of water—not leaving it on the surface for birds to spread.

Additional background on crested floating heart and its relatives, including identification are listed below: